Hikari no Ou

To reside in *The Fire Hunter’s* world is to be perpetually afraid of something. Whether that something in particular is a Fiend that is running wild, or even your fellow man, it’s always present and looming. And it is easy to understand way; in the past, a terrible catastrophe struck humankind and made it so that humanity could no longer harness fire. Coming into proximity of it would lead to the body instantly burning, and if it should happen to occur within a group of many people…well, it doesn’t take much imagination to think about what could happen. And the show does not shy away ... on showing just how terrible it really is. The sea of black, red, and orange bathe the screen as people scream for the pain to stop, as though they were mere kindling that allows the fire to spread at an alarming rate. In a flash, everything could be gone. So, there’s only one option that seems sensible: cloister yourself from everyone else, and keep outside contact to a minimum. Choose loneliness.

It is this cloistering quality that makes *The Fire Hunter* a hard sell, both as a seasonal anime and as a general fantasy story. The idea of a sprawling world for our characters to explore and meet so many new faces (along with an equally-sprawling soundtrack) as they fight against a relatively clear-cut evil is traded away. Where is the sense of grand adventure? Instead, what we see and experience is an intense interiority, which allows for the series to develop some fantastic subtextual worldbuilding. Both in terms of the larger social structure and character relationships, there are constant layers to be unpacked and chewed on. Within the pods of villages that exist on the outskirts of the capital city and beyond, they had to learn to defend themselves against the possibility of the fire that could kill them, but they cannot survive purely on their own. A single village can only have access to so many resources, so it became necessary to create a commodity that can bring commerce of some kind (muku paper, or a paper to communicate with the gods, being the most-referenced in-show).

The world is thusly one that, as sequestered as a village might want to be, must rely on others for money, bartering, and liquid fire. And presiding over their safety from the Fiends are the Fire Hunters, the ones whose sickles and dogs kill Fiends for their golden blood to create a new source of light and heat. Whether as a village or as a villager, the ability to work determines one’s worth. With Fire Hunters acting as both guardian and harvester of the most-precious of all resources, they achieve a quasi-divine reverence among the people of the show’s universe.

This interplay between isolation, reliance, and the Fire Hunters’ guardianship is what brings us into the narrative proper, with Touko being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a Fire Hunter sacrifices his own life in a forest to slay a Fiend so that Touko can live, she is subsequently marked by her own family and village as having committed a cardinal sin. She is regarded as a harbinger of misfortune, and must atone for, albeit indirectly, causing the Fire Hunter’s death. Such is the weight of the sin that her own sister wears a black mask as Touko boards the train, treating her as akin to an undesirable. And as a mere child, Touko is the most reluctant of reluctant heroes, perhaps bound more by a sense of duty to return Kanata and the Fire Hunter’s sickle to his family in the capital rather than any inner drive that she may have at the start. She boards the truck not knowing at all what awaits her, and the derisive attitudes of her home and any she might encounter on the way insinuate that the journey will be anything but pleasant, or safe for that matter. She’ll learn a lot as she travels on about the cold world around her.

But her journey of discovering is not one she undertakes alone. *The Fire Hunter* has another story move in parallel to Touko, that of Koushi, the now-orphaned son of a famed Fire Hunter who is taken in by a wealthy family in the capital. Gifted with a beautiful mind, he accepts the offer by the Okibis to escape the old life he once lived, along with having proper doctors look after his sister, in exchange for using that mind of his. There is apprehension about the current state of the world, and Okibi wants Koushi to figure out how to make like his father did and harness skyfire, an even-more-powerful substance from certain Fiends. Between the Fire Hunter’s death involving Touko and what Okibi is asking of Koushi, humanity seems to be hurrying its way to another conflict, and one that might have just as dire consequences for their existence. Moments of levity are few and far between; it is only when Okibi’s daughter Kira seems rather taken with Koushi, or one of the eventual brides-to-be on Touko’s train say something caustic, that the series allows itself to breathe for a moment.

The pieces move slowly and deliberately, almost like a mournful dance rather than a grand spectacle, best encapsulated by its aesthetic decisions. The series plays itself like a series of theatrical tableaux, both in terms of its emphasis on specific moments of heightened tension and in visual presentation. The soundtrack lacks any of the grand-sweeping orchestrations or soaring triumphs of brass, woodwinds, and strings with explosive percussion that we sometimes expect from the standard fantasy fare. Things are more brooding; the music adopts lower tones and murkier timbres as stringed instruments play in their lower registers and the percussion feels less broad and more echoed. It is meditative rather than epic. Complete with highly-stylized still-shots that deliberately contrast with the rest of the presentation, they read as a kind of contemporary spin on the famed “Dezaki postcard memory,” meant to signify either overtly or subtextually just how important or extreme a particular person or moment in time really is. The affect is that *The Fire Hunter* tends to be more suggestive than anime normally produces, with Nishimura Junji treating its world and Oshii Mamoru’s series composition of the original novels as museum pieces.

And nearly every painting in that museum is a breathing testament of misery and murkiness. The palette employed throughout the series is muted, as even the golden blood of the slain Fiends feels almost too dense and congealed to be “bright.” It is unnatural both in that sense and in the natural sense that we associate blood with red. Even when properly harnessed as either a source of light or heat in its yellow hue, that unnatural quality remains. The only real source of light comes from fire (which we know is the ultimate death sentence), the sun which is rarely shown, or in selective postcard memories. The use of setting and placement of the characters within it robs the world of its happiness, as though even the mere implication of fire and heat is something that must be avoided at all costs. Especially as the stories of Koushi and Touko continue on their way, it allows a real contrast between the higher-class house and its comforts that Koushi enjoys versus the cold, hard steel of Touko’s train or the shaded canopy of the forest she travels through. At times, it is intensely claustrophobic. At others, it feels so vast so as to feel that something is just wrong. Every inch of *The Fire Hunter* is tinged with something to be afraid of, no matter who is traveling with you, where you are, or what is waiting out there.

I mentioned before that *The Fire Hunter* is a bit of a hard sell. Barring the fact that it’s only one season at present, its affect is, on some level, quite alienating, and the narrative runs thick (as do its infodumps). Yet, the unfolding mysteries about the Spiders, the Fiends, Okibi’s goal, Kira’s feelings, Touko’s quest, the divine clans, and many other things make a dystopic steampunk-esque fantasy that feels like more is constantly waiting to be unearthed. Its off-kilter form of presentation and animated character acting gives tension, repose, and rumination plenty of time to dig into the earth, and its world is only revealed to be more horrifying the further it goes along. In the midst of its bleakness, a few characters stand poised to take their steps into whatever fire-laden fate awaits them.

Just remember that the metaphorical shadow on the wall is not just cast by fire – in this case, the shadow itself IS fire.

In an anime era where shows are visually sparkly clean and plots are derivatives of each other (super strong protagonists who will get through anything and everything, and where their struggles feel forced or disingenuous), we finally have a show that harkens back to a time when stories actually portrayed more realistic people, rather than superheroes without the label of a superhero.

The art style is reminiscent of earlier eras and the color palette is desaturated to emphasise the premise of the story, which is that people can no longer use real fire, as otherwise they will combust, which makes the world feel much darker.

The animation ... and art style is a juxtaposition to every other title in this day and age, but they sometimes fail to come across as an artistic choice, and may feel like just poor execution.

Character design is also nice, in the sense that facially people do look quite different from another, whereas modern characters, both men and women, tend to have the same face, with the only visual distinction being largely hairstyle/color and eyes.

The story is its strongest point as we explore how people live in a world where they can no longer use fire, and are reliant on a form of pseudo-fire which can only be gained through hunting monsters. There are some underlying politics as well which is very light as of now, as we are still exploring the worker/hunter side of living in a world filled with monsters that are humanity's main source of fuel.

I really wanted to like this one. I really did. But there's just so much wrong here that I'm wondering if the season 2 will truly help or not.

When I saw this anime, I was thinking I'd be getting something similar to the Shinsekai Yori series. It looked similar at first and lured me in with its intriguing world and wild art style. The opening song especially ended up being one of my favorite bangers of the season!

But without delving too into spoilers, I felt like much of my time was wasted. The first 1-2 episodes are amazing and pulls you in. Then it ... slows down and drags. The characters narrative falls incredibly flat at times and you can't help but wonder what the MC girl is thinking half the time. She's a child who hardly speaks and one who's kind of just dragged into things while rarely making any difference. The MC boy has a lot more interesting things going on with his side of things, but even then you're left with more questions than answers. Talking sequences in general feel very off-putting and stiff. The only good things going on for these characters is their designs... and little more. Excellent wonderful designs but not much else. You learn things here and there, but by the end of the final episode I'm left feeling like I know so little still.

Then you get to the obvious art style direction. Beautiful and interesting at first as they allowed themselves to draw animation freely. Then later on growing stiff and really funky at times. Not in a good way. Some might think it was a style choice to go as clunky as they did, but its clearly a low budget sort of thing going on as well. Still frame panels on top of still frames, action scenes where the action hardly moves... If I wanted to watch a slideshow I'd make one myself. Most of the budget went into the OP as far as I can tell.

Will I watch the eventual season 2? Maybe out of morbid curiosity to see where it goes since I'm still truly interested in the world itself. But all in all, with how much other anime is being cranked out at all times of late, I'd rather be spending my time watching something else.

This show's plot in a summary: within the space of its abrupt 10-episode run that only covers the first 2 volumes in a total of 4, having to rewatch this in a binge IS a necessity to fully (albeit partially) understand the appeal of novels like these.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this: I definitely have a love-hate relationship with both director Junji Nishimura and series composer-cum-scriptwriter Mamoru Oshii. With the former returning back to the anime scene after a recent string of bad series going as far back as 2018 with studio Seven Arcs, and the latter coming back for one of the most polarizing ... series (Vlad Love) that depending on the people you ask, is a love-hate affair that either is worth being enjoyable or just plain bad. Lo and behold, these two notable people are back, and this time, they helm novelist Rieko Hinata's fantasy novel: Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter together with studio Signal.MD...and the results were more in line of what I expected to see from both people leading this somewhat ambitious project being the TV network WOWOW's comeback after a few years (as opposed to the current constant ones you see on Japan's major TV networks).

Being a full-on novel (as opposed to the LN), there is more detail drawn here, and Reiko Hinata's story is shown as such: In the distant future of Japan, a calamity has changed human physiology so that humans will instantly combust when in the presence of fire. As a result, human civilization collapsed until they discover an alternative fuel source derived from the blood of demonic Fire Fiends. As a result, the elite Fire Hunters are formed, whose sole purpose is to hunt down Fire Fiends and fallbeasts and harvest their blood, fueling a new industrial revolution. And one such Fire Hunter by the name of Haijuu, gets himself killed in action while saving a wandering girl named Touko from the Fire Fiend, only to leave his companion dog Kanata with her to be brought back to whence he came from, which is the Capital. At the same time, this young man named Koushi, living off the prestiges of a wealthy family due to the fact that his mother is dead and his younger ill-fated sister needs recovery. And in return, he is tasked by the same wealthy Okibi family under Yuoshichi to find out an alternate power source towards the bottled lightning that harnesses the power of the extremely volatile skyfire that plagues the current government that's about to be overturned in the midst of the resultant chaos.

The full story split into two halves: Touko and Koushi's routes, they're in no doubt connected to each other, though how the anime procured the original source material in this way is amicable at best. From the outset, it's clear that both main characters will be the center core of the series (at least for the first half here) going through what they need to know and survive amongst the sea of raging spirit monsters that could hunt them at every corner. For that, I'd say that it was a good job trying to segregate this massive storyline that involves even the unsuspecting public, albeit with infodumps that don't spare even a second of your time expositioning if you aren't playing close attention, which can feel like a lot through the fast progression of the narrative plot. The truth is that this could've been more refined by Junji Nishimura trying to picture this in the minds of the audience, but as mentioned, nowadays he doesn't give a heck to how anime these days needed to be structured carefully if the storyline is THIS hectic and living-breathing, and just went on his old directorialship ways, which in more cases than one, hurt the show in trying to convince us the audience into the investment of the anime's world at large. At least from what was presented here with Season 1, I would already have surmised that Season 2 (the latter half of the novel) will be more of the same, and though the execution here is wonky at best, the only hope I have is how this story will wrap up when the 2nd half comes in the future.

The characters here also sell the narrative, because they run through the whole course of their world being invaded by the Fire Fiends, not to mention the Fire Hunters themselves and with overarching plots like with the Divine Clans misaligning the world following their Gods/Goddesses and whatnot that ultimately result in the disconnection of the goals and objectives of their purpose in the first place. Touko is a good girl no doubt, the problem is that this innocent kid is brought to the big issue just by wandering alone with the possibility of being attacked by the Fire Fiends, which brings us to her dangerous and treacherous journey back to the Capital, honing the dead Haijuu's belongings along with the dog Kanata as its temporary protector. Touko might not have been taught mature due to her age, but it's because of this reason that forces her to be one, and with the people that she meets on the way (e.g. the 3 brides of Hotaru, Benio and Kaho that are sold off to other villages for forced marriages in exchange of citizenship; fellow Fire Hunter Akira) that teaches her the brutalities of reality, and that this issue is not something to be taken lightly with potential people dying at the hands of the Fire Fiends if not careful. On Koushi's side, being taken by its owner Youshichi, together with his wife Hibana and daughter Kira, he is a good-natured person awaiting the arrival of Haijuu, which turns out to be his father, that with his death together with the suddenness of his mother, as well as his ill sister Hinako, the world crumbles at his feet, similar to that of being an orphan within a split second. The exchange of researching on Fire Fiends, bottled lightning and skyfire, it's a necessity because of the distrust against the government and its nation under attack from a rebel group called the Spiders, and Koushi anchors the project, learning more of what goes under the hood, like the history of the Fire Hunters, the Flickering Flame and the Millenial Comet, all of which play a big part in the eventual plot that slowly expands the story overtime. This is an interesting world that requires very close attention no doubt, and the plot beats are placed right where they need to be, so this is the hallmark to appreciating full-blown novels that require meticulous details where every single storyline and character is essential to make or break the story. Sure, for now it seems like a wedge that both Touko and Koushi are only get getting started on the big narrative from being clueless to informative, but they'll get better as time moves on.

Unfortunately, where I can praise the show for its story and interesting characters, is where I draw the line with production values. Studio Signal.MD is no means by far a decent studio, the most recent of which was the 2-cour run of Platinum End (that was just decent at best), but like another show that they once helmed on (Mars Red), it's clear that director Junji Nishimura and the staff team were putting aesthetics over quality to magnify the world at large. Some were great (e.g. artistic hand-drawn scenes that showcase the beauty and destruction of the world) and many others were not so great (e.g. the constant overlaying of portraits over the current animation plane and the exact hand-drawn scenes used to depict the characters' outburst of emotions), though I don't know what the hell that they were thinking to portray with the latter, which could be done through normal animation, but they didn't, and decided to leverage the shortcomings with the excessive animation and hand-drawn cut-aways, which felt jarring at best. This is a beautiful story, and the production must be in tandem together to express its world at large, which this show I'd like to believe was a fluke but was not.

The music that's courtesy of composer Kenji Kawai, like Nishimura and Oshii, has also worked on Vlad Love as well, so it wouldn't be a mistake to lump these 3 people together. For one, it sets a mood that often happens with moodswings depending on the situations circumvented, and I think that it's decent effort all things considered. For the OST, Leo Ieiri's OP is solemn, yet mystical, while Maaya Sakamoto's ED is just about what I expected being a song of many colours that adds to the generic backdrop of "we are Shonen running" sequences. In this case, I find the ED much better than the OP.

If you can say anything about Hikari no Ou a.k.a The Fire Hunter, it would be signified as a diamond in the rough. Sure, the extent of it is about halfway there, but for the earnest watcher who wants to get invested in this show, while binging it would be the best option, breaking down every episode is the key to being fully immersive on what this show has to offer. Right now, this Fire Hunter show is all but a gem that awaits its latter half to see what it's made of to be properly judged altogether.

This battle against the Flame Fiends is not over yet, it's all but a footnote, that is for now.

I will first preface this with saying Fire Hunter's story and art all throughout these first 4 episodes have been good however I need to bring up with Fire Hunter's biggest flaw and that comes down to its budget. For some people this show might be a non starter due to the lack of polish in fight scenes or all the still frames throughout. If you are a person who thinks a show needs to have fluid and neat animation for it to be considered watchable this show does a subpar job at that.

Now that I have talked about its biggest flaw as a ... show let me try to convince why despite its budget issues and lack of animation polish this show is something should be watching. Firstly let me talk about the shows direction I find its direction to be a key proponent into hiding a lot of the animation issues such as shots of beautifully drawn still images or breaking up a scene into animation windows so the scale of what is being drawn is less amount of work. It uses a lot of close ups so we can get detailed animation of things that are not as hard to animate. The direction is dynamic like it will give you multiple shots as two characters are doing dialogue and instead of animating the conversation they decide to show details of where they are talking or what they are talking about. I have to give huge props to this shows director on the sheer amount of creativity this show has considering its huge budget issue.

I think it also important to state that the art style is quite beautiful despite its budget issues while there are parts where quality drops for the most part the anime looks pretty good.

Now that I have talked the animation and art I think I should talk about the most intriguing aspect of the show which is its story. It has a very expansive world that the show is trying to create and it is done so well because of how the two main characters are set up. As of now in the show the two main characters live far away from each other living separate lives and having no idea of each others existence. Some might say what's the point of splitting the two mcs up or having two mcs at all if they don't interact with each other at all so far however it works incredibly well. Touko is basically a girl who is from a small village who has to travel to the capital to return property of a now deceased Fire Hunter. Through Touko's eyes we learn about different cultures in different villages and people she meets along the way as she is on her journey we also learn about the dangers of the world such as firefiends and the damage they can do. Then we have Koushi who lives in the capital and from Koushi's perspective we learn about the science of the world as well as the political climate that the show takes place in. The show from a world building stand point is phenomenal and has laid a lot of ground work for the rest of the story.

If you are not bothered by an anime that is not always the most polished animation wise I highly recommend the show

The moment I laid eyes on this show, I could immediately tell that veterans of the anime industry were working on this. The likes of Mamoru Oshii, and Junji Nishimura working on this left me having high expectations for this show, and it delivered, to some extent. The story telling and world building has a more older style to it, with it being more of a slow burn. It reminded me of the older Studio Ghibli films, like Princess Mononoke, with its forest settings. There was also a lot of world building and exposition, and while it made it a bit hard to keep up ... with everything at points, it was quite intriguing watching and listening to all the lore around the fire hunters and the changes of human civilization.

Unfortunately, early on, there were signs of this show having a very limited budget, and I could tell with the shortcuts in the animation, the CG, and the unpolished designs. However, I will say the unpolished designs sort of worked for this type of show, and the line work was decent. It was a good effort, nonetheless, by studio Signal M.D.

The music was a very well executed aspect of the show, with the OST contributing to the overall ambience of the shots and settings. The OP and ED were both great as well, with the former being my favourite opening of the season.

To give you a gist of the show, it revolves around an industrial-esque world where human civilization is not driven by fire anymore, but lives in constant fear of it. However, there is hope to collect a new type of energy, with collecting stones that emit light and steam, which is the job for fire hunters.

Touko, a young girl, is in trouble in the woods, and gets saved by a Fire Hunter, who sadly perishes saving her, leaving his dog, Kanata behind. She embarks on a journey to return Kanata to his relatives, along with his weapon. Meanwhile, Koushi, who is the Fire Hunter’s son, is adopted by a wealthy family, and in their mansion and in the outdoors, he learns truths about the history and lore about the Fire Hunters and royal family, and researches to try to save the world from its eventual demise. Their two paths start out separate at first, and slowly come together.

The show does get a little heavy on exposition, and it gets hard to follow at times, but it’s definitely intriguing. The execution of the lore telling might make the story a little boring at times, with its restricted use of animation, which constantly uses stills to tell the story. While the story is wholly interesting, the execution is a bit lacking. The characters seem more like vessels to tell a larger story, and while they have distinct personalities, there wasn’t much to break down from their interactions. They have their realisms around how they interact with the cruel world around them, but that’s about it.

If you value cohesive storytelling and world building a lot, this might be an anime you’ll enjoy. For me, while I did enjoy the storytelling and world building, but the animation ultimately did take away from some of my enjoyment here. There was some good ambience, background shots, and an excellent soundtrack as well. This adaptation basically tells me that the novel itself was quite amazing, and this adaptation gave it some movement to go along with it. In a mediocre season overall, this still ended up as one of the better shows of the season, and I would give this a light recommendation.

Hikari no Ou (The Fire Hunter) is an adaptation of a novel series, and much of the attention afforded to it seems to be due to Mamoru Oshii—who has been inactive in the anime scene recently, other than the nose-bleed comedy Vlad Love from a few years ago—stepping out of hibernation to handle the script and series composition. Of course, Oshii isn't responsible for directing and storyboarding, and if I watched HnO without knowing he was involved, I wouldn't be able to detect his imprint. While I won't say he's necessarily the perfect choice of director for the series, I kind of regret he didn't ... take that role, and the reason why will be clear soon enough.

HnO is the type of story that takes one aspect of our world—in this case, fire—and flips it upside down to create a whole new world around something so pivotal that it's taken for granted. The setting represents a sort of archeofuturism, mixing steampunk sci-fi, dark fantasy and magic, and Japanese folklore, melded together in quite organic ways. Myth shapes technology, and technology shapes myth. It takes a while for the two stories to intersect: Touko goes on a journey to return a Fire Hunter's belongings to his family, and her story serves to flesh out the way the world functions outside of the capital, from the forest and rural villages and the "trains," we get most of our "hands-on experience" here; the other half has Koushi's half invested in bookwork, the inner-workings of the industrialized capital, and conspiracies amongst various factions that remain a mystery until the second season. The steampunk aspects mixed with relative primitivity and the focus on the "trains" make me think of Kabaneri. Humanity's decline in expansive capabilities and a kind of literal casting aside of the Promethean spirit and the symbolic implications of fire bring to mind Attack on Titan.

The narration is my least favorite aspect so far. It adds almost nothing other than a touch of head-hammering exposition that the characters already know. It's better to leave an audience possibly confused and whisper into their ear through character dialogue or events or whatever else. I assume the narration is pulled straight from the book, but it doesn't work well. Luckily, the narration tapers off after episode 4 and becomes restricted to a brief introduction and episode previews, which is a boon for the atmospherical qualities of the series. The world-building and lore create a lot of space for intrigue and various interesting directions to follow, and this is the most "novel-like" storytelling I've seen from this season. The OST complements the atmosphere well, and the OP has a melancholic touch that not only primes one to immerse themselves into the series but perfectly represents the tone of the series.

Hiromasa Ogura's art direction brings to life the rural villages, foreboding forests, and industrial cityscapes; the composition and storyboarding are generally decent, but specific shots are ill-fitting and lack harmony. The character and creature designs have a lot of charm but are also wildly inconsistent. The series is often hampered by what appears to be a frenetic production schedule and lack of time. The director, Junji Nishimura, is an industry veteran, and while he brings more cinematic appeal with his directorial vision than the deluge of seasonal schlock we shovel down on the regular, I can point to specific choices that are questionable or even baffling.

Firstly, what is with all of the tiny split-screen portraits? They don't add to the aesthetic or drama of the scene. They seem like the arbitrary choices of a student tinkering with editing software for the first time—or rather, a series with a tight budget trying to pull a fast one and trick the audience into being dazzled. It goes from merely questionable, such as with the dialogue scenes—to baffling with the horrible use of these image overlays during fight scenes. This technique was seldom used to great effect, and true split-screen tends to look better than these cheap "digital-looking" overlays.

Similarly, we constantly are treated to CGI tracking shots to establish scene transitions at the mansion in the city (why not just use a still?). Most of the other CGI is subtler or hidden and relegated to the train or bugs thus far and is too sparse to be much of a bother. The worst time/budget-saving technique has to be the freeze frames. When used well, these can be a bold stylistic choice, such as with Osamu Dezaki making this technique one of his trademarks to add emphasis or heighten the drama. Here, the contrast between the regular visuals and the freeze frames is too pronounced, and they're often awkwardly placed. It's a difficult task to pan over multiple beautified freeze frames of a young girl scrubbing a toilet and expecting to elicit anything other than unintentional laughter. The artful brutality of the opening fight sequence is sullied by this freeze frame technique as well, which is a red flag you'd think the staff would have the sense to conceal better... Toward the second half, they begin to use the technique more carefully, and a few of the stills come close to more classical examples of the technique.

The production values are inconsistent. I feel many anime fans will refer to the animation as "bad"—and I wouldn't even argue against that in most instances—because when the series doesn't rely solely on shot composition and the animators have to get back to doodling, the animation can be rough at times. Whether that's to the series' benefit or detriment depends. The rawness of it lends the animation a unique energy, but the series can be quite slow, and it rarely utilizes the off-kilter animation as smoothly as, say, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Mind Game, various scenes from The Hakkenden OVA, and so on.

Yasunori Miyazawa is the primary name I see for the most exciting snippets of animation, and this series is worth a look for fans of the animator: the most active character animation and fight scenes with the fiends up to about episode 4 were largely his work (minus the OP). His movement here is loose, lively, and inventive, though it can be unrefined or could be a little smoother at a few points. Still, it's a tremendous step above what usually passes for "good animation" in seasonal anime. The director squeezed many scenes out of Miyazawa, and specific moments have a childlike quality, reminiscent of the roughest scenes from Shinya Ohira or Masaaki Yuasa—the dragon being a perfect example. And speaking of unintentional laughter, there's some of that here as well.

HnO is not the best example of Miyazawa's animation, and while select segments can be fascinating, they are simultaneously flawed. Episode 2's fight scene with the two dogs flipping around, gliding through the air like flying squirrels on meth, and drop-kicking their opponent in what looks like an early 2000s computer game in terms of physics, along with godawful split-screen nonsense and Adobe Flash-esque character manipulation, is a sight that boggles belief and is impossible not to laugh at. Frankly, there are a lot of unintentionally humorous parts in this series because of budget constraints at various points, and the pipsqueak white dog had me howling with laughter in every scene.

Sadly, despite enjoying it, I'm mostly ragging on the series more than complimenting it. It's something of a gem from this season but a roughly-hewn one. There are other more polished anime this season, but they are too dull for words, and this one has a bit of soul to it; even a passionate DIY handicraft sensibility. Hopefully, the storytelling will result in a satisfying direction for the conclusion in season 2, but it's too soon for an accurate appraisal.

There need to be more shows like Hikaru no Ou. Too many shows are cookie-cutter trope-filled BS that appeal to the general public. Not enough shows try to do something new for once. where you don't have overly moe, cringe, ecchi, rom-com, etc tropes to satisfy the audience.
No, unlike these generic shows, Hikaru no Ou is atmospheric, and slow-paced, with an amazing art style and storyline. All on a low budget.

Hikaru no Ou is an atmospheric show that lets the audience take in the world with stride. While it may seem slow-paced, there's purpose and meaning to every action. When people walk through the forest, ... the viewer gets to see through the creepy atmosphere and the fear of the unknown as to what lurks in its depths. Whether it be people talking, the simple act of moving around, scene cuts, or the simple task of eating food, the show is either worldbuilding or letting you know each character with its deliberate framing. Hikaru no Ou is filled with mystery, and the worldbuilding slowly lets the characters know the nature of everything. Even when there are times when characters explain what's going on, the show teases you with only small bits of information. There's no true info dump: the show exposes enough to understand the world, yet also lets you wonder about what's going on. Compare this to something like Haibane Renmei, where the show is just slow for the sake of lowering the budget. In this show, the slowness only accentuates the show and its environment.

The story is just a perfect execution of how converging storylines should be played out. Both characters don't know each other and are left to their own devices. There's a vague connection between them, but for the first half of the story, you get to experience them in their own environments and because of their largely different circumstances, you get to know the world through two lenses. Not only does this allow you to understand the world better, but it's also that much more satisfying when the characters meet up. It's not some Odd Taxi gimmick where a guy just "randomly picks" the MC's taxi car and bam, converging storyline. This show puts the characters in isolation, and it's only when you get to know each character do they start interacting with each other. There wouldn't be nearly as much impact if you were only introduced to one of the characters. You'd be watching characters that you just were introduced to that start influencing the plot. Instead, you have indescribable weight and empathy when Touko and Koushi bond over their common connections.

This links up to the faster-paced developments where everything that you've learned about the story converges. Tree people, the enma, fire hunters, sky-fire, Gods, deities, and the Flickering Flame. The slow-paced development in the beginning slowly starts to snowball into something big, and yet, it's not too fast. You're not given cheap plot twists to get some dopamine thrill, but rather, the clues that the show gives finally start to click together. You start to realize that certain things that were brought up start to make sense when Touko and Koushi interact with each other's circle of people.

And the pacing and art style only accentuate this atmospheric show. The art direction is phenomenal. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and the characters are realistically proportioned. The eyes, face, hair, and clothes of each character try to be realistic and less moe cringe. I'm sorry you don't have wide-eyed, pink-haired protagonists, but instead, some more true-to-real characters that are struggling to survive and find out the world's mysteries. The color tones are more muted and suited for the dark world that Touko and Koushi live in. There's no high-pitched girl that over-exaggeratingly cries out at cute dogs, nor is there some soppy romance. There's no shitty comedic manzai interjection that tries to lighten the mood of the plot when there is no need to. Even the main characters aren't any "chosen ones" with special powers, rather, they are at the whim of the greater powers. They can only try to influence and do what they can when they can.

It's just a shame that the show got screwed over by budget. The animation, when it counts, is super jank. I do admit that. There is not crappy CGI when it comes to characters, and the CGI on vehicles looks pretty good. The problem is the animation when people start doing a lot of movement. The choreography of the fights sucks. The animation looks weird, and even when people are running around, it looks weird sometimes. There are times when one-frame detailed storyboards are freeze-framed in place of actual animation. The fights when fire hunters fight enma don't look good. Of course, with how the OP looks and sounds, you can't tell me that this studio can't animate. Yet, even with these flaws, the art style, soundtrack, pacing, scene cuts, framing, and color tones combine to become something gorgeous. Yes, the show also suffers from certain pacing issues. Kun is barely characterized, and it does feel like the latter half of the show is rushed. I'm sure this comes with the 10-episode limit and having to cut down on the source material.

Even with these potentially devastating flaws, the intriguing converging storyline, art-style, and potent characters create one hell of a show.

I guess the novel series could be interesting, but I am dropping this.
Very slow plot and low quality animation. At first I thought it was peculiar to be able to count the hair strands of someone's eyebrows in certain minute-long closeups, or being flashed the cringe worthy amass of fat and wrinkles that Yuoshichi's face is. But the end of ep 3 with the dragon being just a moving splatter of white, which then gets compared with the high detail concept card was a terrible mistake, because it showed so obviously that the animation is not simple by design, but by necessity of being time ... pressed and/or having no budget.
Should have trusted my instinct and not watched an anime entirely produced by WOWOW, Japan's poor man Netflix.
A pity to let go because the seiyuu cast looks awesome (Miyano, Hosoya, Ishida, Miki, Hayami, Sakamoto..). But this is no audiobook, unfortunately.

Hikari no ou has as one of his biggest points of interest and strenghts the world-building and everything related to the settings, the premise is interesting but as im going to mention later there are many reasons why in general terms the series didnt live up to my expectations (and maybe to many others spectators) even with doing right many things.

Although the complexity of the story in not enormous, is does feel like that due to an poor direction and writting, the narration and chuncks of information about the world that serve as explanation about something along the episodes accompained with transitions very erratics with ... from time to time still-colored-images that doesnt fit the flow and are really off for the general scheme of the series makes for an pretty difficult digestion of dialogs and understanding of the context.

The series throws at you a bunch of things that most of the time feel foreign one against other and the way that are serve is pretty bad makes for an confusing experience that to begin shouldnt be like that because at his core is rather simple (i cant even say that is trying to be more intrincate netiher because the fault clearly rest on a poor handle on the storytelling). Sure you will be able to catch of what is all about but it's gonna make for an tedious ride for some moments.

Characters wise the main ones who takes most screen-time are pretty weak from some who are fully hollow and really from persona to motivations dont have anything and the few reminecentst fragments left are just some kind of stereotype on their behaviours (talking about you touko), to others who between them (Koushi and Yuoshichi) their goals and intentions are very blurry and kinda inconsistent, for the rest of the characters for most part were fine.

The art style i like it but was strange 50% of the time the drawings and animation in general were fine but the other half the amount on quality how decreased was notable with episodes like the one were appears the dragon thing, with fights is also the same sometimes looked good but other times were pretty poor. On this aspect i think was 50/50 is very obivious when takes appeareance, i dont know if this was because of an low budget or what.

The op and end were pretty good, the ost didnt have any piece that was memorable.

Now even with all that mentioned i have to say despite all their faults i kinda enjoy it, the fire hunters, the gods, the villages, the two episodes on the train through the forest (which i wish could lasted more) really catched my eye and even if the story is not followed completly flawlessly kinda got my hook to see how would unfold. To some degree make me remember to another series called "shinsekai yori" on the wolrd-building and how interesting looks.

RESUME
This series is gonna be polarized there are gonna be people how doesnt like it (understandably given all his cons) and some who can be able to forgive or make blind eye to their cons and still enjoy it, worth to mention it feels refreshing in comparisons with many others series of today. If you ask me i would say to give it a chance having on mind the aforementioned and see if you end up liking it , its not a bad or horrible series but also is not an materpiece or excent of faults.

Fans of anime looking for a new series to get hooked on need look no further than "Hikari no Ou" or "The Fire Hunter". The series features an experienced and talented crew, with Junji Nishimura at the helm as director and Mamoru Oshii as the writer. Their expertise, combined with top-notch animation and a hauntingly beautiful musical score, make for a truly unique and engaging series.

What sets "Hikari no Ou" or "The Fire Hunter" apart is the feeling of nostalgia it evokes. The style of animation and storytelling harkens back to the 2000s era of anime, a testament to the veteran crew behind it. This ... nostalgia is sure to bring a smile to the faces of longtime anime fans and may pique the interest of newcomers looking to experience the charm of the early 2000s anime scene.

The story centers around a young hunter named Yori who sets out on a journey to uncover the secrets of the "Fire King" who once ruled the land. Along the way, Yori encounters a colorful cast of characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. The world-building is impressive, with richly detailed landscapes and a mythology that feels both familiar and unique.

Overall, "Hikari no Ou" or "The Fire Hunter" is a gem of an anime series that will transport viewers to a bygone era of anime, while still delivering a fresh and exciting story. Fans of the genre will be delighted by the nostalgic feel, while newcomers will be entranced by the animation, music, and storyline. This is a series that should not be missed.

it's rating on the site is absolutely NOT fair and doesn't deserve it. PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE!

Hikari no Ou tries to be a unique, more thoughtful kind of fantasy, but sadly it is much too shabby and dry to recommend.

Its biggest problem is the animation; constantly breaking the art, moving as little as possible, making odd artistic choices, and often making scenes more confusing. Action sequences suffer the most, with characters suddenly looking like MS Paint drawings and awkwardly floating around. Characters go off-model all the time, even in quieter moments. The 3D CG, while sparingly used, looks very outdated and jarring. Painterly illustrations sometimes take over the screen, but often in seemingly random moments. The list goes on.

Unorthodox, "low-quality" animation ... can pay off, like in Tatami Galaxy and Mononoke for example. However, the animation here just does not feel like there is any consistency or artistic intent behind it, and it feels more like they are trying to cut corners and cover up mistakes (unsuccessfully). Interestingly, the OP is much better and shows the potential of this style of art and animation; the show itself often does not meet this bar. The end of Episode 2 would be a good point to decide for yourself whether you can enjoy (or tolerate) how the show looks and moves.

The overall art style really works, however, and feels unique next to its 2023 peers. The character designs, the backgrounds and the subdued color palette all come together to create an almost dream-like and mythical atmosphere (I like that it reminded me of Mushi-shi). The music also feels different and adds a lot to the contemplative and mysterious tone.

The strange and expansive world is the most interesting thing about the show. This is a harsh world where humanity is still struggling after a mysterious disaster. There is a form of society resembling Industrial-era Japan (a little like Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), but most people are desperately scraping by, while powerful, mysterious forces are vying for control. The show is packed with thoughtful worldbuilding that encompasses technology, economy, social classes, races, customs, beliefs, and more. However, there is just so much of it, right up to the final episode, and much of it is delivered in an unengaging manner, through narration and characters flapping their mouths.

The characters are very toned down and believable people, but it is difficult to care about them. Basically every character is just focused on their goals and stoically pressing on. This may be as expected in a post-apocalyptic world, but they do not reveal much of their personalities and motivations that we can connect with. One of the two main characters is entirely pushed along by circumstance, without much to say about it. Many supporting characters remain a mystery, and not in a way that leaves us intrigued; we just don't have much to go on.

The story mainly acts as a vehicle to journey across the world. While it is fascinating to gradually discover this world alongside the characters, the story is not much of an emotional one, other than characters bonding through their shared struggles. In 10 episodes, it feels like the show has only now finished setting the stage. The season ends in the middle of a build-up, and while it does provide a future direction, its meaning is left unclear.

So what are we left with? We have a unique art style that is constantly brought down by sloppy animation. We have an interesting and detailed world that is dumped on us with no interesting story and characters to populate it and hold our attention. Yes, this is an original, understated, more adult-oriented fantasy anime (the kind I was looking forward to). If you are absolutely dying for one of those, if you are generally unaffected by animation quality, and if you value worldbuilding above all else, you may enjoy this show. Otherwise, I suggest you look elsewhere and avoid the disappointment and irritation I have felt watching this.

Anyone with enough of an attention span to follow a story that they haven't seen 100 variations of a thousand times will love this show. Every episode has a twist that is, for all intents and purposes, impossible to predict. To me, that means the story is enjoyable, because the unexpected is kind of my thing. The opening and ending songs were good enough that I never skipped them, partially because of animated sequence at the end.
I hate to say how many anime I've dropped this winter because I'm so tired of the same 'ol same 'ol. That made me put this near the ... top of my list of favorite anime ever, along with Monster, Gankutsuou, Full Metal Alchemist, Mononoke Hime, and a few others.
So if you're looking for another OP MC and his Hottie Harem at the beach between progressively challenging boss fights, this is not for you.
Otherwise, get past the idea that everything in the art form has to repeat what's already been done and watch something different for a change.
I recommend the Fire Hunter to any art lovers out there.

This season's hidden gem. Just that. Original plot, good rhythm, bad animation of the action scenes (but I think it happened because of the low budget, because you can see a good storyboard and good framing). Beautiful opening and ending, refined soundtrack.

One of the most original narratives I've seen in recent years. It's an adaptation of a novel, it really doesn't look like Japan, but I found the characters very well built and faithful to their goals.

I really liked the rhythm of the narrative, there is a lot of information in the story that comes from the dystopian scenario, so the narrative is precise and ... manages to be at a pace that the audience has time to appreciate and understand.

For me this anime is not a masterpiece for two reasons:
1. The animation that is really not well executed at times and is interspersed with beautiful static illustrations highlighting the contrast between them

2. The narrative holes that are plugged by the narrator at the beginning of each new episode recapping what happened before. it was through her speech that I realized that I hadn't learned many things from the previous episode, so there are situations that were not very clear

Vibes from Tehxnolyze, Studio Ghibli, Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Samurai Champloo, Serial Experiments Lain (design characters) and xxxHolic (Koushi's design characte

-This one is a complicated case, I do recommend watching it, and I wanted to give it a 7... but I just can't, and the reason is the animation... I'm not going to lie, the animation for this one is shit, and it's not because the studio can't make a good animation, it's just that they OPTED for this, the art style is different, bit unique and I do like it, but when it comes to the animation, it's just shit, there's no other way to put it, mouth movment is awful, I usually don't even pay attention to this when comes to Japanese ... dubs(or any other original dub), after all I don't speak Japanese, but here it's just terrible, and the fighting scenes they are horrible... I almost can't tell what's happening, and they end super quickly, it almost makes no sense.
-Ok so if the animation it's so shit why recommend it? Honestly the story is good, the story is carrying this anime so hard that it pains me, if the animation wasn't so bad it would easily be an 8, and I'm sure it would the best Signal.MD anime as of yet... it's just sad that they opted for this "minimalist animation" for this one, specially that the story for this anime it's so unique and good, it's not something you'll find in other animes, and it really saddens me when a good story like this goes to the trash pretty much because of the animation...
-Apparently it got a second season already confirmed, wich surprises me a lot, because I really thought that this anime wouldn't do any numbers, since the animation is bad. But hey it did, and I really hope that they do it justice for the second season...

~But yeah it's going to be a 6 for this one, I do recommend it, the story is unique and good enough if you can pull through the animation, and it's sad that on a market so competitve as the anime market, when we finally get something like this, they decide to not do it justice...

This Fffffire.

The Fire Hunter is easily one of the most original fantasy anime I’ve seen in ages. Set in a future where there's no conflict between mankind because, in the last great war, someone used a giant, immoral super weapon which left humanity completely defective on a species level, meaning humans could spontaneously combust if left near even an ember. So a bit like Fire Force, but minus the anime titties.
Without fire, humanity has been forced to rely on liquid fire for heat and fuel. A substance that must be harvested from the blood of dark monsters that prowl the forests by fire hunters.

The ... Fire Hunter follows two stories destined to collide. The first follows Touka, a village girl who after getting saved by a fire hunter who died protecting her from a monster, is tasked with returning his hunting sickle and hunting hound to his family in the capital.
The second follows the same dead fire hunter's son and daughter as they’re adopted into a wealthy family. The son is tasked with researching a special firestone in exchange for his ill sister's treatment.

Ghost in the Shell writer has created an incredibly immersive world. Almost futuristic, but set back in a lot of ways. The way liquid fire is used for mundane things like cooking, to fuelling giant armoured train-like vehicles that go from village to village doing trade and picking up women to be married off to other villages as part of a ritual to appease gods, to tree folk who live deep in the dense forests that now cover the world, I love how deeply interwoven every little detail of the world-building is. Couple that with an animation and art style that looks like it jumped straight out of a picture book, complete with breathtaking, wonderfully garish brush-coloured still shots of action or important scenes, and you have an anime that I would dare call a hidden gem.

Unfortunately, that picture book art and animation style is sort of a double-edged sword. As wonderful as it can be, it is not an easy style to animate in. There are action scenes which feel incredibly awkward to watch as they either lack frames or the line of action is incorrect.
I also wouldn’t say that this is an anime that everyone will enjoy. If you’re not into slow, artsy-fartsy world-building and character development then you probably won’t be as interested in this show as I or others.

That said, I am interested in where the story is ultimately going. Like I said at the beginning, The Fire Hunter is easily one of the most original fantasy anime I’ve seen in ages, and although it takes its time and has a couple of bumps and bruises around its edges, I look forward to the second season.

7/10 Good.

It is sad but not surprising to see that this series doesn't get what it deserves, at least for now. I mean the rate 6.77 (3,088 users) and the lack of interest in this anime. I remember the same situation with Koukyuu no Karasu, it is totally different in many aspects from this one but it's rate got higher as more eps were out, so there's the same possibility here.

Yes, this anime gives the vibe of 2010s animation quality but I am not complaining, in contrast, I find it decent considering the worse examples, the budget, and the effort of producers since it's not even ... adapted from manga they are all by themselves in animation. The coloring is gloomy but imo is synchronized with the dramatic/realistic side even though that counts as a minus. But the appearing pictures at the important moments is a little off, they are well drawn but they break my focus on the ep.

For now especially our main leads didn't show brilliant personal traits, they are seemingly not much clever or courageous but they took a path to do what is expected of them, they are trying, reflecting a normal human with some good actions. We'll see how it'll go.

So; coming to the story, I think it is developing well, even that sometimes the storytelling can go too fast to put up with. The world is rationally explained. For now the storyline after our leads' most likely union is not much predictable, what will happen after that? What truths will be revealed?

To mention op and ed are listenable without skipping, at least to me. Other sounds and soundtracks are nothing special or unusual but fitting, so alright.

In the end, it is watchable if the plot takes you in because characters are not much annoying and the animation quality is not that bad for today. So it's understandable that this anime can attract few as a result, but it doesn't mean it's bad.

This does not feel like an anime, this feels like something a high school English teacher would put on so that people can analyze a novel without reading it.

For those who do know this is an adaptation of a Japanese fantasy novel which from what I can tell from quick googling is considered good modern fiction over there, but something to point out is that this is an actual high school English-type book, not some light novel or manga, a full-on high concept piece of genre fiction. All of this led me to be excited, I loved last year's Hike-Monogatari which is in the ... same vein being a classical Japanese novel translated into animation, I hoped this would be similar to animation bringing out the book's imagery and adapting it to animation.

I was dead wrong. This became a mess quickly because of the quality of the animation. Don't get me wrong, I am the type of pretentious hipster who loves avant grade techniques but the choices here were clearly made for budgetary reasons, not artistic ones. This is most seen with all action animation being replaced with Berserk '97 style action stills, without the interesting watercolors nor the unique compositions, and a lot of emotional scenes aping the style of Ang Lee's Hulk for some reason with different characters being cut out into comic book style panels and placed next to each other in reused animation.

All of this pales in comparison to this show's main sin which is a little thing I like to call the Fate/Extra problem which goes as follows: A show can either tell a complex story with simple artistic decisions or a simple story with complext artistic decisions. I feel this can be viewed on a matrix, and because weebs reading this are not likely to want to hear my pretentious ramblings on why I call this the pre soviet russian literature scale and why Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy prove this without the shadow of a doubt, I will use anime to prove my point in a nice matrix to show examples of this:
Complex Story Simple Story
Simple Medium: Fate/Zero Naruto
Complex Medium: Fate/ Extra Monogatari Series
What this schizophrenic meltdown is trying to show is that trying to portray complex information in a complex way is confusing and often leads to people losing track of the plot in the medium of the show. This show commits that sin and the really interesting story of the novel is buried under baffling artistic choices that only hurt the adaption.

The reason why I said what I said in the first sentence is that this reminds me of a showing of the glass menagerie put on an old CRTV in my high school English class about half a decade ago so we could analyze it with the works we actually read and watching it I felt like this was the worst way to experience the text cause I was looking at a shitty recording of a community theater production of great work, which I feel is the best way to describe this show.

Overall: Didn't like it....

Story:
Story itself isn't that bad but I just can't get hooked up with it.After watching for some episodes,I didn't find the story too fascinating.Also didn't like the way it presented it.

Animation:
Animation is pretty much good in my opinion.Liked the artstyle as it felt like classic shows. But after some episodes animation is also downgraded a bit.

Characters:
Pretty much average..
...
Bgm:
I had to include this matter.Bgm is good but it didn't use it properly.It felt like some amateur editor just putted bgm tracks at random.

CGI:
Using CGI for bugs? Like why? Also cgi was horrible...

It may seem boring and tempting to drop in the first few episodes but the story gradually unfolds with new interesting plots and links.

Art style is unique, similar to dororo and its a story without modern conveniences.
It was predictable to a certain extent.

Characters are mysterious and there was not a lot of background story other the anime reminding that humans toyed with fire and got burnt badly.

Ending was a cliffhanger that stated will be continued in season 2.
Quite a lot is shown without much details hence the score.

Definitely a must watch if one doesn't mind the slow and boring start.